During these uncertain times as we all work from home, the thought of the JLA office in central London feels like a distant dream. But in recent months, we have been busy expanding the office to meet the needs of our ever growing speaker bureau. Most excitingly, this has included the addition of a brand new studio on the first floor which we have named the ‘jLAB’. The state-of-the-art space is available for use by our clients and allows seating for up to 80 guests for live speeches. Fully equipped with staging, lighting and camera equipment, it is also the perfect place for hosting and streaming online content from our favourite conference speakers as part of our online brand, JLA+.
As a speaker bureau, we are feeling extremely grateful, now more than ever ,to be able to connect with our clients across different online platforms. We receive regular messages of motivation from our speakers which are shared on our Instagram page and we are also hosting weekly JLA+ briefings to provide an insightful overview of the current climate. This is a fantastic way to stay in touch with our JLA clients at a time of necessary social distancing.
However, these online connections aren’t just for the here and now, this is something we are keen to build upon as we emerge from this pandemic. We are really excited to eventually get back to the office and make the most of our excellent facilities in the ‘jLAB’ to continue and expand these conversations both online and in person.
Here are a few of the fantastic conference speakers who have visited us.
Eliza Manningham-Buller
Eliza is a real speaker bureau favourite. We recently chose to name one of our new meeting rooms in her honour, so it seemed fitting that she should be the very first speaker to grace the ‘jLAB’ stage! Eliza is an expert leadership speaker, drawing from her experience as Director General of MI5 from 2002 to 2007. Eliza has fascinating, unique anecdotes about her career heading up the security service and her speech is the perfect balance of funny, motivating and inspiring.
Tim Harford
Many of you may have had the chance to catch FT columnist Tim’s fantastic online speech earlier in the week. Prior to Covid-19, he also popped into the ‘jLAB’ to share some of his wisdom with us. What we love about Tim is his effortless ability to share interesting stories whilst also conveying important messages within them that organisations and individuals can take away and really learn from.
Robert Guest
As you can probably imagine given the current state of affairs, we had a lot of questions for Robert, the Foreign Editor of The Economist, when he came in to speak to us and he answered them all with perfect poise. Listening to Robert speak is always fascinating and we are continually struck by his wealth of knowledge and the ease with which he is able to articulate the effects and repercussions of globalisation.
Monty Halls
If you’re looking for adventure and motivational speaker in one, look no further than Monty Halls. As a Royal Marine turned adventurer, Monty has a raft of exciting stories to share with his audiences and never fails to capture everyone’s attention. Somewhat surprisingly though, the anecdotes that stand out the most from Monty are his tales of human connection, from working to reunite people separated by war or moving his young family across the world to the Galapagos Islands.
Alex Hunter
Alex was part of the team that launched Virgin America and visited the jLAB to share his expertise on the importance of customer experience and building brand loyalty. Most striking, are the brilliant tips and takeaways that Alex’s speeches include. He particularly emphasises the importance of small details in customer service and how these will always go a long way towards making someone feel valued and appreciated.
Thimon de Jong
As an expert of technology and business, Thimon is able to give an insight into the latest AI developments and how these will start to alter our day-to-day lives both at home and in the office. With his relaxed interactive delivery style Thimon has an innate likability and is one of our favourite AI speakers. We were so pleased to be able to see him in action in the ‘jLAB’ and he definitely left us with lots to think about!
If you are interested in knowing more about the ‘jLAB’, the speakers mentioned or any other names on our website, please contact JLA speaker bureau here.